Chelsea Manning leaves prison, heads straight for booze and pizza

Julian Assange tweets his delight, but nothing on his promise to visit the USA

As expected, leaker extraordinaire Chelsea Manning has left the United States Army's Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after her sentence was commuted in the last days of Barack Obama's presidency.

Manning was jailed after leaking more than 700,000 documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. She came across the documents in her work as an intelligence analyst for the US Army in Iraq. Manning was disturbed by some of the material she encountered, such as the video of US helicopter crews attacking and killing a group of unarmed men, including two journalist for Reuters.

Manning's actions earned her numerous charges and she was tried, and convicted, in 2010. Military judges handed down a 35-year sentence, a record stint behind bars for such offences.

President Obama commuted that sentence in his final days in office, a decision widely criticised by the incoming Trump administration.

Obama also denied that his decision was linked to Julian Assange's promise to fly to the United States if Manning were freed. Assange later back-tracked on that promise and added previously un-mentioned conditions to any US visit.

The white-haired one today took to Twitter with the following.

Chelsea Manning now walks free. An epic victory for which many good people fought--including Chelsea herself. I can't wait to meet her.

Manning will reportedly take a few weeks to settle back into liberty and civilian life before making any public statements. When she does, they're not likely to be kind to the US government if another of her recent posts is any guide. ®

Two more days until the freedom of civilian life ^_^ Now hunting for private #healthcare like millions of Americans =P